Nonverbal communication and culture. Identity, stereotypes and prejudices, страница 18

Religious Identitycan be an important dimension of many people's identities, as well as an important site of intercultural conflict.

Drawing distinctions between various identities – racial, ethnic, class, national, regional – can be problematic. Italians and Irish are often viewed as Catholics, for example, and Episcopalians are frequently seen as belonging to the upper classes.

Religious differences have been at the root of conflicts from the Middle East to Northern Ireland, and from India and Pakistan to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the United States, religious conflict led to the Mormons leaving the Midwest in the early 1800s. For some people, religion is a very serious topic and some people.

People of some religions communicate and mark their religious differences by their clothing. Hassidic Jews or Muslims of Arab countries are one example. Of course, most religions are not identified by clothing. For example, you may not know if someone is Buddhist, Catholic, Lutheran, or atheist based upon the way that person dresses. Because religious identities are less salient, everyday interactions may not show religious identity.

Class Identity. We don't often think about socioeconomic class as an important part of our identity. Yet, scholars have shown that class often plays an important role in shaping our reactions to and interpretations of culture. Quite often the kinds of magazines we read, the foods we eat, and the words we use often reflect our class position. At some level, we recognize these class distinctions. But we consider it impolite to ask directly about a person's class background, so sometimes people use communication strategies to place others in a class hierarchy. These strategies aren't always very accurate. For example, people may try to guess the person’s class background by asking where he or she went to college.

Most people in the United States can often recognize class associations. But we often don't really know the criteria for class. Is class determined by financial assets? By educational level? By profession? By family background? These factors may or may not be indicators of class. The class identity situation is very contradictory in the post-Soviet area, with a great polarization of the society into the “newly-rich” and those barely surviving (even with a solid educational background).

Another insight into this apparent contradiction is that people in the majority or normative class (that is, the middle class) tend not to think about class, whereas those in the working class are often reminded that their style of communication and lifestyle choices do not belong to the norm. In this respect, class is like race. People assume that with hard work and persistence, individuals can improve their class standing, even with convincing evidence that proves otherwise. The reality shows that classless society is a myth. The working-class and poor are locked into a class-based system and given a false hope that they can have different opportunities in life. Another outcome of this myth is that when poverty persists and spreads, the poor are blamed. They are poor because of something they did or didn't do: They were lazy or didn't try hard enough, or they were unlucky. It is a classic case of blaming the victim. The media in often reinforce these notions. Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the movie Titanic shows us that upward mobility is easy enough –just a matter of being strategic, charming, and a little bit lucky.

The point is that, although class identity is not as clearly identifiable as, say, gender identity, nevertheless it does influence our perceptions and communication with others just as much. Race, class, and sometimes gender identity are interrelated. Statistically speaking, being born African American, poor, and female increases one's chances of remaining in poverty. But, of course, race and class are not synonymous. There are many poor Whites in the USA, and there are increasing numbers of wealthy African Americans. So it is important to see these multiple identities as interrelated but not identical.